I have a 2012 Macbook Pro Retina 15" model, which does not appear on the list for the Big Sur upgrade. Is this "it" as far as upgrades go, or might there be something available in the future for these older models that just isn't currently available yet?
MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15
Thanks for the information. Do you know offhand of any way to "turn off" update notifications? I have "Garage Band" sitting in the App Store queue (with the nice little red circle with a number "1" on the icon in the dock. This one won't install because it says I first need iOS 11 -- which I now know isn't ever going to happen! Or am I simply doomed to see upgrades notifications for apps that will no longer work on this machine -- for the rest of its life?!?!
Thanks for the information... I'm computer-stoopid at times. I hadn't looked into which models would accept the Big Sur upgrade; I just saw that Garage Band required Big Sur, and ASSUMED that since it showed up as an upgrade that Big Sur would be available to me. So the following comedy ensued:
I watched some YouTube videos on how to clone and replace hard drives in the MacBooks... and rushed out to Best Buy and picked up a 1Tb 2.5" SSD. (I knew that I wouldn't have enough space on my current drive to do an upgrade.) Came home, cloned the drive, made sure it worked before tearing into the computer and then... where the **** is the hard drive??? Oh, wait... I've got the 15" Retina model... there is NO hard drive. Just that little SATA SSD. ****... but at least I got to blow the dust out of the fans while it was open! (And, of course, I now owned a nice 1Tb backup drive...)
Back to YouTube, making sure I'm looking at the RIGHT batch of 2012 machines this time... and then after a frustrating session with Best Buy ordered online from OWC. I got everything I needed the next day, performed the necessary surgery and -- ta-daaa! I've got an SSD with room to breathe!
And THAT'S when I went to download Big Sur... and found out that I'm no longer "in the club".
But, yes -- I do plan to keep using this computer until either it (or I) dies. I've now got room to spare, can work on videos without running out of space... and will hopefully not be shoveling out a wheelbarrow full of cash anytime soon!
The GarageBand issue is a glitch or bug in the App Store. No, we should not be getting notifications for apps that won’t run on our systems. Apple has to fix that. There are numerous reports of this on the forums.
As for your original post, this happens every time a new version of macOS is released. For engineering/hardware reasons Apple draws a line to exclude certain older models from installing the new version. I have a late 2013 iMac 27” that won’t run Big Sur either. Catalina will continue to receive security updates and necessary patches for a few more years. Enjoy your 2012 Mac until you are ready to replace it. It’s not going to just stop working you know.
Catalina is as far as you can go.
You can upgrade as far as Catalina and that will be the forever end of the line for macOS upgrades. Apple does not return to the scene of the crime.
End of OS Life?
